P: (Mac) Direct Camera Connect fails to show previews in Import Dialog

"But since these are already imported photos that aren't loading in Finder, can we rule out the USB-C connecting the computer to camera as the problem?"

Probably, I think.

@johnrellis thanks as always for your input.

Yes, many others seem to be experiencing this also, however most reports seem to have come with LrC v. 12.4, which was not the case for me since the issue predated v. 12.4

I'll continue to troubleshoot and see what I can find out. 

To clarify regarding this note: "occasionally hitting command+R to have the photo “show in finder” has a delay to the photos actually loading in, in Finder." -- during an import that is absolutely creeping but working .. a few photos per minute, what I'll do is select one of the imported files in grid view (in current import folder) and hit "show in Finder". Doing so sometimes has that loading problem I describe here happen. But since these are already imported photos that aren't loading in Finder, can we rule out the USB-C connecting the computer to camera as the problem? 

The CF Card Reader's been my workaround but what a bummer!

I have three R5s and being able to just pop the USB-C cable in has always been 1) super easy, 2) reliable, 3) blazing fast, and 4) would even charge my batteries.

Now I need to pop open both battery and card compartments and import and charge manually.  

@touheyphoto, thanks for all that detail. As you can see, others are experiencing issues recently with importing from their cameras via USB cable on Mac. 

"occasionally hitting command+R to have the photo “show in finder” has a delay to the photos actually loading in, in Finder."

This suggests a problem in the Mac OS libraries for accessing cameras via USB cable, which LR relies on. Apple has had problems with these libraries in the past, so maybe that's the cause of what's happening now.

Thanks for your useful (and immediate) input. 

Switching to Card Reader is a functional workaround for now. I plan to test your other suggetions soon. Thanks, will follow up

Finally getting around to following up after the initial post. Have more to troubleshoot and still searching for a solution but I at least have a workaround.

The workaround I found has been simply pulling the CF card out of the camera and using a CF card reader plugged into the same USB-C cable and computer port. This has never been necessary but doing this workaround brings back the blazing fast import speeds I was used to seeing before the last month or two.

I screen-recorded videos illustrating the difference in speeds. First two are cable-to-camera imports with different cameras, cables, catalogues, etc for each import. The second two the same switched up variables but both are CF express Card Reader imports:

Import #1: USB-C to Camera, Canon R5 #1, CF card #1, freelance LrC catalogue, USB-C cable #1, Mac Studio port #1

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vgh0t7v6sl85d6pkncmy8/R5_1-import-Freelance-cat.mp4?dl=0&rlkey=qyfphgr3k5b2phb9b4klnsbls

Import #2: USB-C to Camera, Canon R5 #2, CF card #2,  hobby LrC catalogue, USB-C cable #2, Mac Studio port #2

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0efu0kt1owqcnomi552iu/R5_2-import-hobby-cat2.mp4?dl=0&rlkey=u76yeurkrc7ze3gukc3iprfg7

Import #3: CF Card Reader Import, CF card #1 from Canon R5 #1, freelance LrC catalogue, Mac Studio

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n1us7nja16at72g6nncwt/Card-reader-R5_1-card-Freelance-cat.mp4?dl=0&rlkey=sa9v01oinai5j37cmg90zqwal

Import #4: CF Card Reader Import, CF card #2 from Canon R5 #2, freelance LrC catalogue, Mac Studio

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g7bqbe8zxy37ax6cwysak/card-reader-R5_2-freelance-cat2.mp4?dl=0&rlkey=nemv8wlllmpa3z1uiq96abzau

Just to clarify, these issues persist in the import dialogue ONLY. Once imported, or just generally outside import dialogue, things work at the speed I’m used to. 

Also, this issue predated LrC v. 12.4 for me. It started with v. 12.3 or earlier and didn’t fix itself with the update to v. 12.4. 

Other things I’m noticing: 

- occasionally hitting command+R to have the photo “show in finder” has a delay to the photos actually loading in, in Finder. 

- quitting and reopening the import dialogue window several times sometimes fixing the problem .. feels a bit like banging the side of a tv to fix it.

- I’ll sometimes receive the message “could not move  a file to the destination folder because it is not writable (163)” .. I set permissions to “everyone” can read and write with no luck.

- I'm wondering if this might be RAM releated since I've had a similar issue in the past, and because previewing photos via Finder sometimes shows the thumbnail with a colorful-glitchy looking filter applied. (Image sample 1, sample 2)

I’ll follow up again once I make time to troubleshoot each variable more carefully. 

I am seeing this with my Canon 5Dmkiii - only happens at the import box. Once in the catalgue things work as expected. But in the important gallery, just grey boxes....which makes it kinda hard to suvey the thumbnails for duds.

Camara raw format is .cr2.

MacOS Ventura 13.4.1/ Mac Mini M2 Pro, 16gb RAM

It was working perfectly until the most recent LrC update. Nothing else has changed. Have done all the usual troubleshooting,

Good afternoon everybody , this is exactly the issue I'm faced with since my latest update of LrC to 12.4 .... I never had any problem during years ... " Previews are no longer showing since updating to version 12.4 All I see is a gray box where the preview should be seen. This always worked fine until the update, and my importing methods have not changed." I've reset the preferences , guaranteed full access to the disk ... no improvement ... there seems to be a bug somewhere ... thanks for your further assistance ...

Good afternoon , since my latest update of LrC two days ago , the photo's that I want to transfer from my camera and import in LrC are no longer displayed on the import pannel ... this is a main issue since one can't see the photos anymore ... What can be done to coreect this issue , please ? 

I recently upgraded to the latest version of Lightroom Classic (12.4) and since then have been struggling to import images direct from my Canon camera. The application sees the camera in the import dialogue and grey boxes are displayed for the images on the card but it is extrememely slow to generate thumbnails. I can click the import button without the thumbnails but the images are not imported. If I cancel and restart the import routine a few times I can eventually see the images and import them but I recently had a full card (128Gb) and I was not able to get Lightroom to see them all (some images displayed but some stubbornly without thumbnails). The card access light on the camera was active throughout this process. In then end I had to remove the card from the camera and import directly from a separate card reader. This would appear to be new behaviour since I insttalled the latest update. I am wondering if anyone else has noticed this.